Beyond Time
by KateCayce
Summary: This is the second story of Radek Zelenka and Melody Hayden a sequal to Complications.Please R&R!
1. Held up by Rodney McKay

Note: Stargate: Atlantis does not belong to me, but Doctor Melody Hayden does.

**Beyond Time**

**Chapter 1 – Held Up By Rodney McKay**

"I don't think the square root of one trillion is relevant, Rodney." John Sheppard had nearly had his limit of Doctor McKay on this particular away mission. The Colonel, McKay, Teyla, Ronan, and Doctor Hayden had been on P5A-62Z for nearly a week, conducting trade negotiations and upgrading some of their archaic computer systems. The Korzoi were a peaceful people to their core (completely unlike the duplicitous Genii) and everything was going smoothly so far. So far being the important part.

"Colonel, if they don't upgrade their systems even more…." Rodney was his usual self, seemingly obnoxious but actually trying to give the Korzoi the right amount of help.

A loud whistle pierced the air. "Now boys, Mommy told you no fighting offworld." Mel Hayden closed the gap from where she had been helping some of the techs in setting up a more advanced computer system.

"Melody, if they don't upgrade then who knows what catastrophe could befall them? Hm?" Rodney was getting to be even more obnoxious than usual.

Mel looked over at Teyla, and then both women rolled their eyes at McKay's little hissy fit. "Rodney, do want to be sent to your room like a bad little boy?"

Rodney's jaw dropped at how Mel was talking to him. "What?" His voice got higher as he screamed out the word.

"We can dial up Atlantis and replace you with Radek any time that you wish." Sheppard had a feeling that this was what Mel had in mind. He knew she was getting anxious to see her husband, but didn't know why she was getting worse by the day.

McKay crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his chin up. The smug look followed. "I'd like to see you explain this to Elizabeth."

"I'd tell her that her chief scientist on this mission was acting like a toddler in his terrible two's." Mel crossed her arms and started to stare Rodney down.

Rodney's mouth opened a few times like a fish gasping for air, and then he turned and stalked out of the camp towards the forest.

Sheppard quickly put his ill-tempered friend out of his mind. "Mel, just how close are we to being finished?"

Mel sighed. "Actually if Rodney hadn't had this little fit, and had put in about an hour more, we would be done and on our way home."

John's face brightened considerably at that news. "Then I think we should get Rodney back here to finish up. I'll go chase him down."

_An hour later…._

Rodney and Fash, the chief Korzoi scientist, were finishing the last of the upgrades. "Is everyone satisfied?" By the tone of Rodney's voice, he was still pouting.

"If this will get me back to my husband faster, then yes, we are satisfied." Mel grabbed her bag and started to head toward the gate.

Sheppard, McKay, and Ronan looked at each other, completely confused. Then Sheppard raised an eyebrow and silently questioned Teyla, but she shook her head and raised her shoulders in the universal '_I don't know'_ shrug.

The quartet caught up to Mel just as she was entering the last symbol into the DHD. "Everyone ready?"

"Apparently you've been ready for quite some time. In a hurry to get home?" Sheppard teased Atlantis' top oceanographer.

"Actually I am." Mel was about ready to jump out of her skin. _I'm cutting it close. I hope he's got everything ready._

The event horizon gave its usual whoosh as the wormhole was established. Teyla sent her IDC and the confirmation beeped.

"Move 'em out!" John started herding his team toward the gate. He watched Teyla, Mel, and Rodney go through first, and then he and Ronan walked through together as they brought up the rear. He didn't notice anything wrong at first since he was trying not to run into Rodney who was rooted in place just in front of him. "Hey McKay, why haven't you move?"

"Uh, Colonel Sheppard, I think something went wrong during our gating." Mel's voice had an edge of hysteria in it.

Sheppard's head snapped up as he took in the familiar Gate Room. _Where are our people? And our equipment?_ "Rodney?" John growled.

Rodney was frantically looking around, trying to find a familiar face among the many in the Gate Room. "I have no idea! We are in Atlantis, but…."

"Yes, this is Atlantis. And who may you be?" The man leaned over the upper balcony to address the strangers who had come through the Gate.

"I am Colonel John Sheppard of the Earth expedition to Atlantis." Sheppard stepped to the front of the group as he addressed the man he thought could be the leader here.

"I am Janus." The man made his way down the steps towards the Gate. "You say you come from Earth?"

"Did you say Janus?" Rodney couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes, that is my name." The man smiled at Rodney.

Rodney stepped next to Sheppard and lowered his voice. "Colonel, this is the man that helped the other Elizabeth. The Elizabeth from the past, remember?"

Sheppard's eyes showed his surprise. "Are you telling me were in the past?"

"Approximately ten thousand years in the past. Before Atlantis fell the first time."


	2. I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

**Chapter 2 – I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore**

The team all dropped their gear where they stood and looked at each other in disbelief. The man named Janus stopped a few feet from the team with a questioning look on his face.

"It seems, Janus, that we are from your future." Sheppard started with the truth.

"Are you certain?" Janus looked as if he doubted the Colonel.

"As certain as I can be without seeing star charts from our future compared with your current star positions." Rodney had that conceited and downright snotty tone to his voice.

"How far into the future?" Janus asked.

Mel looked at her watch and sighed. "Approximately ten thousand years."

"How can that be?"

"Something caused the wormhole we had established to _our_ Atlantis to dislodge and come to _your _Atlantis." Rodney explained as if he was talking down to a child.

"A solar flare," Mel added with a look of surprise on her face.

"What?" Rodney was confused by her answer.

"A number of years ago, SG-1 was sent back to 1969 because of a solar flare. That's also how they got back." Mel was trying to recollect the precise details of the mission reports she had read and the stories that Daniel, Jack, and Sam had told her about their sojourn to the past.

"And didn't they overshoot their present and have to get sent back by a future Cassandra?" Rodney answered smugly.

Mel shot Rodney an evil look. "Yes, but that's not the point. They found a solution and got back. And we are here on a past Atlantis with people who _created_ the whole Stargate system."

Rodney smiled suddenly. "You may have something there! Janus, do you know if there has been any solar flare activity in the last few minutes?"

"There has been no solar flare activity for the last cycle." Janus wished he could be more helpful, but these people were unusual.

Rodney's jaw dropped, and after a minute of incredulity, turned to Mel. "So now what, oh master oceanographer and aficionado of past SG-1 reports?"

"And here I thought that you were the brilliant astrophysicist? Rodney, I was only throwing an idea on the table, which is more than you have done in the last five minutes!" Mel's voice raised in volume until the last word was practically a scream.

"Melody, I am sure that Doctor McKay is thinking of a plan like he always does." Teyla lightly touched Mel on her back as she tried to calm the scientist down.

Mel turned toward Teyla with tears running down her face. "I am sure Rodney's doing his best, but I have to get back to Atlantis _right_ _now_."

"What are you in such a hurry to get home for? I am sure that Radek can handle a few days without billing and cooing with you," Rodney was only partially aware of Mel's actual distress during his little tirade.

Mel's face crumpled even more as she began to sob. Teyla and Sheppard both shot withering looks toward Rodney as they tried to calm the now hysterical Doctor Hayden. After a minute, Mel started to calm and then she turned toward the bane of her husband's sanity (and who ironically was her husband's best friend). "I am in a hurry to get home to Radek because if we want to try this month, it has to happen _NOW_."

Rodney turned around once, and then turned back to Mel with a look of complete cluelessness on his face. "What are you talking about, Mel?"

Mel finished mopping up her face with the tissue Teyla had given her before answering. "Radek and I are trying to get pregnant again, Rodney."

Rodney looked like he wanted to say something, but chose not to and instead, crossed over to Mel and gave her a long hug. "That's great news."

Mel got a little teary again. "And this put a slight wrinkle in our schedule."

"I hate to break this up, but my superiors are insisting on some information from you." Janus looked confused by the group in front of him.

"Certainly. Lead away." Sheppard relinquished control to the Lantean.


	3. Gathering Nuggets

**Chapter 3 – Gathering Nuggets **

An hour later, Ancient Lantean citizens were still interviewing each of the modern Atlantis personnel.

"Yes, the city is going to fall in the not very distant future. I believe that most of you do get away by gating to other worlds, and some of you ascend." Sheppard was relaxed and just repeating the same material again and again to his Lantean interrogator.

"No, I am not sure of exactly what the Wraith do to Atlantis to bring about its downfall." Teyla was also getting nowhere with her Lantean.

"I am from Earth, ten thousand years in the future. We discovered the Gate address for Atlantis a few years ago in your outpost on the continent we call Antarctica, came here, and we now occupy the city." Rodney's voice rose in volume and tone, betraying the frustration with the repetition of his story.

"I only got to Atlantis a few months ago when I was transferred from Earth. We still have a problem with the Wraith, but they haven't tried to attack since I arrived." Mel was as weary as the other three of repeating herself.

Ronan didn't have as frustrating a time as the other four since he had engaged his interrogator in a staring contest and refused to answer his questions.

The five Lanteans who questioned the team met together in the conference across the way from Elizabeth's Weir's office. Or what would eventually become her office.

"Did you find out anything more from the one called Sheppard?" Janus asked the woman, Salacia, to his right.

"No. He repeated the same thing that the other four people told us."

"Actually, mine did not speak at all. I think he is the one called Ronan Dex," said the man, Aquilon, to Janus' left.

"So, what have we learned?" Janus wanted the others to help him fill in the gaps.

"Atlantis will fall in the next few cycles. The Wraith will not get the city because we sink it and tether it to the sea floor," said another woman, Salus, across from Janus.

The last of the five, Portunus, sighed heavily before adding his information. "Some of us leave through the Gate for other places, and some of us ascend to a higher state of being."

"Do you think it is possible that these people are just who they say they are?" Janus asked.

Salacia nodded her head. "They believe that they are telling us the true nature of the future."

Portunus concurred. "The tales that they weave are not preposterous. It is possible that the Wraith will overtake us soon and we will be forced to do desperate things."

"But abandon our home?" Salus's voice had a sadness in it that the others could relate to.

"Apparently we are left no other option. But now that we are forewarned, maybe we can begin to prepare for this battle." Aquilon looked at his fellow Lanteans, looking for strength and courage.


	4. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

**Chapter 4 – Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch**

The Gate tech forwarded the response to the IDC code sent by Teyla, and the others in the Gate Room waited for the SGA-1 to return home. One among them was getting anxious to see his wife again. _I think I have everything ready. Candles, wine, soft music, clean sheets on our bed. _Radek Zelenka smiled softly to himself and waited for his wife to come through the Gate.

But the wormhole fizzled out, leaving everyone staring at the stained glass wall behind the Gate. "What the hell?" The tech was busily punching codes into his laptop, hoping it would tell him what had just happened.

Radek moved over to another laptop, quickly set up diagnostics, and then hovered over the tech's shoulder to read his screen.

"What happened?" Elizabeth Weir strode out of her office to find a baffled Gate Room crew.

"We had an off-world activation, we received Teyla's IDC, and then the wormhole just fizzled out." Radek explained to their leader. "I am running a diagnostic on the Gate and the DHD, just in case it was on our end."

"Try and redial them on the Korzoi homeworld." Elizabeth hoped her team was okay. No one thought that the Korzoi would give them any trouble.

The tech pressed the symbols on the DHD that corresponded to the Korzoi homeworld P5A-62Z, and the wormhole kawooshed as the link was established.

Elizabeth pressed the small communicator attached to her left ear. "Colonel Sheppard, do you read me?" She waited a moment. "Teyla, Rodney, do you hear me?" She cast a worried glance over at Radek.

Radek's face mirrored the worry on Elizabeth's. "Melody, are you there? Can you hear me?" He was suddenly very scared of what could have happened.

Elizabeth tapped on her communicator again. "Major Lorne, please report with you team to the Gate Room."

"May I ask why, Doctor Weir?" Lorne's voice was tinny in her ear.

"Colonel Sheppard's team established a wormhole, sent their IDC, and then never came through the Gate."

"We're on our way. Lorne out."

_Two hours later…._

"The locals told us that Colonel Sheppard's team dialed us, and went through the gate." Major Lorne was back at Atlantis, looking both frustrated and scared.

"Radek, have you found anything yet in the diagnostics?" Elizabeth called up to the balcony.

Radek looked down at Elizabeth and Lorne, but not without closing his eyes briefly to try to contain the emotions that wanted to spill out. "I have found nothing out of the ordinary on the diagnostics."

"Any ideas?" Elizabeth looked around the Gate Room at the other scientists and technicians.

"Was there any solar flare activity? I vaguely recalled SG-1 was sent back to 1969 by a solar flare." Elizabeth wasn't sure of the young woman's name since she was practically just off the space ship _Daedalus_.

"None on our sun, and I will have to check if the Korzoi's sun was active at that moment." Radek turned to begin inputting his data into the laptop in front of him.

Elizabeth and Lorne climbed the stairs to join Radek on the balcony overlooking the Gate, and as they reached the top, Radek began to swear softly in Czech.

"What is it, Radek?" Elizabeth asked quietly.

"It seems that the Korzoi's sun had the mother of all solar flares at the precise moment our people would have entered the gate."

Elizabeth hung her head a moment to both collect her thoughts and control her emotions. "Any idea where they wound up?"

Radek whirled his seat around, and the look on his face was serious. "I will have to pull some other data and make calculations, but I honestly have no idea. From the past experiences of SG-1, it would be a safe assumption that they went backward in time. But then, SG-1 did use another solar flare to try and return home."

"Didn't they overshoot our time and wind up way in the future?" Carson Beckett joined the party on the balcony.

"Technically yes, but they did get home eventually."

"Any ideas on how to get our people back?" Elizabeth again looked around the room at her people here on Atlantis.

"My team will need some time to study all the data and make calculations," Radek answered. _Time that we cannot waste._

"Where can I help, Radek?" Carson squeezed his friend's shoulder before taking the chair next to him.

Radek looked over at him with unshed tears shimmering in his eyes. "Just being here and understanding my lack of patience. I haven't told Elizabeth anything yet about our trying for another child." He kept his voice low so that Elizabeth wouldn't overhear him now.

"She would consider it an honor if you did tell her."

"Tell me what?" Elizabeth moved to occupy the chair on the other side of Radek.

Radek blushed. "Melody and I were trying for another child."

"That's great news!"

Radek looked up into Elizabeth's eyes. "We are missing our window of opportunity." He looked close to crying again.

"That means…oh. I am so sorry Radek." Elizabeth touched him on the shoulder and left her hand there for comfort.

"I knew because they enlisted my advice in planning this baby, and we had done a full genetic workup beforehand so we could rule out an inherited component to Isabelle's problems," Carson told their leader and friend.

"So is there anything to worry about?"

"No. Isabelle's death was just a tragedy. Carson says that we are both healthy and should have a healthy child." Radek took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"We had just gotten done with all the testing last week, and Melody's cycle means that they should be able try right now." Carson cast a worried glance over to Elizabeth.

"She has a few days leeway?"

Carson nodded. "She should have about six days or so left to conceive."

"But we need to get her back to Atlantis first." Radek jammed his glasses back on and started tapping away at his laptop.

"And I will leave you to your work." Elizabeth slid quietly out of the seat while silently motioning Carson to stay beside their friend.


	5. A Matter of Faith

**Chapter 5 – A Matter of Faith**

Melody stood on a balcony overlooking her pier where she kept Ike. _But Ike's ten thousand years in the future. Along with my husband._ She was looking out at the ocean, trying to think of possible ways to get home, but only succeeding to miss Radek even more.

"Penny for your thoughts," John said as he moved next to Mel and leaned on the balcony rail.

"I was just thinking how this is my pier, and remembering a picnic Radek and I had here a few weeks ago."

"I know Rodney and Janus are wracking their collective brains trying to figure out what went wrong."

"I do know some about astrophysics, especially how it can be applied to oceanography, so I should probably go and help Rodney." Mel pushed away from the rail and immediately lost her balance.

"Did you get any sleep last night? And have you eaten anything today?" John had a very worried look on his face.

Mel looked up at him with sorrowful eyes. "I close my eyes and I see Radek standing there. And as for the food part, I just haven't been hungry today."

"My prescription is to eat a good meal, and then have a long nap. Let Rodney do all the heavy thinking for at least today."

"Is that a suggestion or an order?" Mel smiled.

"Make it a suggestive order," John laughed as he pushed Mel towards the dining hall.

_An hour later…._

"John, have you seen Melody?" Rodney had a wild look in his eyes when he found Sheppard in the dining hall.

"Yes, I have. She is in our assigned quarters, taking a nap," John responded before taking a sip of the wonderful tea Salacia had insisted he try.

"A _nap! _In the middle of the day when we are trying to get home as soon as possible for her?" Rodney's eyes bugged out as his temper tantrum went from mild to ballistic.

Sheppard got up from his chair and went face to face with McKay. "As it turns out, Doctor Hayden didn't sleep at all last night and hadn't eaten all day until I practically had to force feed her an hour ago because she's worried about getting home! Do you have a problem with that?" John's voice went up about a decibel on the last few words so that he was practically shouting in Rodney's face.

Rodney immediately got a sad puppy look in his eyes. "She's that bad?" His voice was hardly above a whisper.

John sighed heavily and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, she's terrified of not being able to go home to Radek."

"It is more than that." The men both startled when Teyla spoke only a few feet away from them.

"What do you mean?" John scowled even more.

"Carson had given some drugs to help Melody conceive a child. She told me one of the side effects is the tendency to become overemotional."

"Fertility drugs?" Rodney's voice squeaked out so loud that the other two looked at him strangely.

"I believe that is what Melody called them."

"Rodney, what have you and Janus found out?" John tried to get the scientist on some other subject than Melody's mental and physical status.

"Oh, that. Janus and his people found traces of some unusual energy spikes in their sensor logs. They think the solar flares came from our end." Rodney went and plopped in one of the mess's chairs. "But they have no idea how to get us back to our timeline."

"Have you asked Janus about his time-traveling puddle jumper?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney looked up at Sheppard with a blank look that changed to knowing in a heartbeat. "You mean the one that was in the alternate timeline where I drowned when the shields failed?"

"Yes, Rodney, the puddle jumper that saved the alternate Elizabeth to come back to this time and warn them to rotate the ZPM's that run the shield instead of running all three at once."

Rodney stood up and began to walk toward the door. "I hadn't thought about asking Janus if he had cooked up that puddle jumper yet. Thanks for the tip." Rodney waved at Sheppard and Teyla as he practically sprinted out of the door.

"Do you know where Ronan is?" Teyla asked.

"I have him guarding Mel's door."

"Is that to protect her or to keep her inside?" Teyla smiled.

"Some of the former, but mostly the latter. She's not eating or sleeping properly. Both Carson and Radek would have my hide if anything happened to her."

"I think I will go check on her. And provide a shoulder to lean on."

Sheppard reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. "We will get home."

Teyla smiled as she laid her hand on top on his. "I have faith that Rodney and Janus will get us home."


	6. Answers to Questions Unasked

**Chapter 6 – Answers to Questions Unasked**

"Anything new to report?" Elizabeth walked back into the Gate Room after taking an hour-long meal break to discuss strategy with Major Lorne, who was hot on her heels.

"Well, we've narrowed down the timeframe where our team could be." Carson rose to greet her.

"And that is?"

"About ten thousand years in the past." Radek answered, sounding less emotional than he had been a few hours ago.

"How did you figure this out?"

Carson chuckled. "Actually we have the Atlantis database to thank for this wee bit of information."

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows in puzzlement. "Please explain?"

"While my people were looking into the astrophysics of what may have happened, Carson looked into the Atlantis database." Radek stood and stretched the kinks out of his back.

"Yes, I checked the database, and found a few notations referring to some strange people from the future. As you know, the Ancients did not want anyone to time-travel. They had a healthy fear of what could happen to the timelines, paradoxes, et cetera." He stopped a moment to see if Elizabeth and Lorne were keeping up with him. "Well, about a year before the Lanteans abandoned the city, there is a reference to three men and two women who came through the gate a stayed for a few days. I cannot find any reference to their identities, but the record does say that the strangers have a great knowledge of the layout of the city and its systems. And that three of the people can work many of the systems."

"That would be Sheppard, Rodney, and Melody since they all have the ATA gene." Elizabeth was cheered by this news. "Now, any ideas on how we may get them back?"

"The database didn't say what happened to the people. We can only hope that somehow they will be able to get their hands on a puddle jumper that Janus has modified with his time travel drive like the one the other Elizabeth Weir had found." Carson moved back to his console to continue searching the database.

"What are you looking for now, Carson?"

"We still haven't gone through some of the records of that period, so I'm hoping to find some more information about our people."

Elizabeth moved closer to look over the doctor's shoulder and whispered in his ear. "How is Radek doing?"

Carson turned his head slightly to answer her quietly. "He's a lot better since we discovered this news. It at least gives him a wee bit of hope that Mel isn't lost to him forever. Again."

"Carson, I think I have it!" Radek's joyous shout startled both Elizabeth and Carson.

"What do you mean, son?"

"I went back through a subfolder in the one you were looking at before, and this message popped up." Radek pointed at the folder that was blinking on his laptop.

"Is it safe to open?" Elizabeth was remembering the virus the Wraith had given the computers.

"It should be, since Rodney wrote the algorithm for the encryption!" Radek was beaming.

"So this is a ten-thousand year old file in the Atlantis database that was written by Rodney?" Elizabeth was trying to sort it all out.

"Yes, and if I open it, we may find out what happened to our team," Radek sat back down in his seat and clicked the file open.


End file.
